The present invention relates to construction and arrangement of moveable portions to display numerical characters, such, for example, as the current prices of fuels at service stations or grocery, dairy products and fruit sold from grocery stores and stands along a roadside.
An object of the invention is to .provide numerical characters that may be large enough to be legible along the roadside and to be readily changeable as prices fluctuate rapidly in such wares and goods.
Many previous attempts have been made for display signs of this nature, including removable numerals which are in themselves unhandy, and also in employing moveable sections having contrasting and non-contrasting faces against a background member. For example, the patent to Steeter et al. 4,542,603 shows a background having contrasting and non-contrasting flaps hinged to cover non-contrasting and contrasting areas to achieve the desired results of changeable numerals. The Streeter structure requires a spatula-like instrument (26) to flip the flaps to expose or obliterate patterns that may be formed into the numerals 0 through 9. Because the flaps are hinged, they are unbalanced and can be disturbed by winds or else must be constructed and hinged of heavy gauge members.
It is an object of the present invention to design such a numeric display that may be readily manipulated in place by rotation about central parallel axis of each segment. It is a further object to provide a simpler structure in which the numerical indicia, per se, determine the numerical symbol; i.e. no part of the background serves as a portion of the indicia.
It is an object of the invention to utilize the seven bars or facets of a squared or rectangular FIG. 8 to form all ten of the Arabic numeric symbols by mounting each of the bars on a central axis or axle to rotate the bar to selectively present the contrasting or non-contrasting color or pattern required to present the selected numeric symbol.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a display sign that is not readily subject to alteration or dismemberment by wind. It is an object to provide seven moveable parts which are symmetrically balanced around axles so that they do not tend to be moved by wind or may be further secured by relatively light clamps.